Passage

Matthew 23.37

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling." (Matthew 23:37, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"35. that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar. 36. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."

"37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

"38. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matthew 23:35-39, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"35. that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. 36. Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation."

"37. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!"

"38. Behold, your house is left to you desolate. 39. For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"" (Matthew 23:35-39, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."

"37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

"38. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matthew 23:35-39, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"35. that on you may come all the righteous blood being poured out on the earth from the blood of Abel the righteous, unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar: 36. verily I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation."

"37. 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that art killing the prophets, and stoning those sent unto thee, how often did I will to gather thy children together, as a hen doth gather her own chickens under the wings, and ye did not will."

"38. Lo, left desolate to you is your house; 39. for I say to you, ye may not see me henceforth, till ye may say, Blessed [is] he who is coming in the name of the Lord.'" (Matthew 23:35-39, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Jesus, in the final temple-discourse of his earthly ministry (the seven woes against the scribes and Pharisees, Matthew 23)
Audience: the crowds and disciples (v. 1), though the immediate apostrophe addresses Jerusalem itself
Location: the temple precincts, Jerusalem, during Passion Week
Time period: the Tuesday of Passion Week, c. AD 30 or 33; Matthew composed c. AD 60-80

Theological reading

Matthew 23:37 is one of the most affectively charged verses in the gospels and the canonical proof-text for the "two wills of God" distinction. Jesus apostrophizes Jerusalem twice (the double address signals deep pathos, cf. Saul, Saul; Martha, Martha; Eli, Eli) and offers the maternal image of a hen sheltering her chicks. The verb ἠθέλησα (ēthelēsa, "I wanted", "I willed") in the first clause is set against οὐκ ἠθελήσατε (ouk ēthelēsate, "you would not", "you did not will") in the second. The two willings are placed in direct grammatical opposition: Jesus's will to gather is frustrated by Jerusalem's will not to be gathered.

The verse is load-bearing in the Calvinism / Arminianism / Molinism / Open-Theism debate because it appears, on its face, to teach that what God wills can fail to occur due to human resistance. The major readings are:

Arminian / Molinist, God genuinely wills the gathering; human libertarian freedom resists; the resistance is real. The verse is direct evidence of libertarian free will and of God's universal salvific will. Pairs naturally with 1 Timothy 2.4 ("desires all to be saved").
Classical Reformed (decretive / preceptive distinction), Jesus speaks of God's preceptive or revealed will (what He commands and invites) which can be resisted, not His decretive or secret will (what He effectually brings to pass) which cannot. The verse is fully compatible with unconditional election; the lament is genuine grief over the violation of the preceptive will.
Restricted-referent Reformed, the children Jesus would have gathered and the Jerusalem that would not are different sets. Jesus would have gathered the children (the elect among Israel); the city-leaders (Jerusalem qua institution) prevented it. This avoids the two-wills problem by denying that Jesus's frustrated will and Jerusalem's resistant will share an object.

Reading 2 is the most exegetically defensible Reformed position; reading 3 is grammatically strained (the children-Jerusalem distinction is hard to sustain in the second-person "you would not"). Reading 1 takes the verse most straightforwardly but inherits the broader theological burden of how a genuinely willed divine purpose can fail.

The verse also carries christological weight. Jesus speaks as the one who has been sending prophets to Jerusalem ("how often I wanted to gather"), language that implies pre-existent agency in Israel's history. This is one of the implicit-deity passages: Jesus claims to be the one who has been working through Israel's prophets all along, not merely the latest in their line.

See Calvinism vs Arminianism vs Molinism vs Open Theism for the full multi-position treatment, and Predestination for the broader doctrinal context.

Key words

thelō (Strong's G2309), to will, to want, to desire. The contested verb at the center of the two-wills exegesis. Lexicon entry not yet built.
episynagō (Strong's G1996), to gather together. Used elsewhere of eschatological ingathering (Matthew 24:31); the maternal-hen image gives it a covenantal-protective resonance.
G4314 - pros, pros (Strong's G4314), "to / toward". The directional preposition in "sent to her."

Theological themes

Divine pathos. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem; God is not affectively flat toward those who resist him.
The two wills of God. Decretive vs preceptive; antecedent vs consequent; sufficient vs efficient grace.
Human resistance to grace. Whether real (Arminian/Molinist) or compatibilist (Reformed), the resistance is morally accountable.
Implicit pre-existence christology. "How often I wanted to gather" places Jesus as the agent behind Israel's prophetic history.
Covenantal judgment. "Your house is left to you desolate" (v. 38), the temple as forsaken, anticipating AD 70.

Cross-references

Luke 13.34-35, the Lukan parallel of the Jerusalem-lament.
Matthew 23, the full seven-woes discourse this verse closes.
1 Timothy 2.4, "God desires all to be saved", the parallel universal-willing text.
2 Peter 3.9, "the Lord is patient... not wishing for any to perish", the third major two-wills text.
Ezekiel 18.23, "Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked?", the OT antecedent of the willing-not-to-destroy motif.
Deuteronomy 32.11, "as an eagle stirs up its nest", the OT maternal-bird image of God's covenant care.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.